At every stage of my life, I picked up at least a tidbit of knowledge that helped me when I moved on to the next step. Here is some of the curriculum from my school of life.
- Don’t Drive Like My Brother, 101. Dave is three years my senior. We used to go out driving around after he got his license. He drove like a mad-man. Tickets, accidents, street racing, you name it. He was a one man wrecking crew. I did some stupid things behind the wheel of a car, but not quite like Dave. Ironic that he became a policeman, and later a magistrate.
- Box Cutter, 102. My first job was at a supermarket. I learned how not to open my veins when opening cases of Sugar Frosted Flakes with a razor cutter. More importantly I learned the value of networking. I befriended a vendor who got me my first full time job, which set the stage for much of my life’s story.
- Community College, 103. I never graduated, still, I did learn a thing or two. There was a communications course that taught me the basics of writing. I still don’t know the difference between an adverb and a pronoun, but I manage to write in a manner that sometimes gets me an up-vote or two. I also composed quarterly newsletters for my fledgling tax practice, which helped the business grow and to maintain a very low turnover rate. I took a basic accounting course that didn’t really interest me at the time, but would prove useful several years later. And after just barely escaping high school math classes without being sentenced to summer-school, there was a business math class that, for some reason, came extremely easy to me in college; I actually had the highest GPA in the class, something that my high school math teachers never would have believed. That too, helped me down the road.
- Beer Truck Driver, 104. The number one most important secret of my success as a tax preparer came from my time selling beer; customer service. I encountered difficult personalities and power trippers, and of course, nothing was worse than dealing with a drunk when I was sober, and there were plenty of those. Treating people with respect, returning phone calls, and following through are all things that I learned while I worked as a driver-salesman.
- Union Rep, 105. I became involved with my labor union, I wore every hat there was over a 25 year period. Remember that accounting class I had? It came in very handy when I took over the financial secretary position. The business math class proved useful during contract negotiations. Also, I learned all aspects of payroll processing, which became an early part of my tax practice.
- Financial Services, 106. After being the beer guy, I became security and insurance licensed. I did not care for that job, but I learned that if you conduct yourself professionally and play well with the other children, they will remember you fondly. A couple of the advisors funneled their clients to me, which jump-started my tax practice.
- Tax Guy, 109. There were some prerequisites for this one. DIY Tax Return, 107, and H&R Block, 108. My own taxes had a few complexities that served as learning experiences, such as apartment rentals, and capital gains. Later, training and working for Block gave me confidence when the opportunity for Dan’s Tax Prep came along.
Early in my beverage selling days I had a customer who owned two very profitable pizzerias in a college town. His first job as a teenager? Making pizzas at the store he would eventually own. My point is that there are things to be learned all through life and at any job that can lead a person to more lucrative opportunities and a better situation.
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Dan, I believe this quote is suitable to you and many of us HD readers: “Unless you try to do something beyond what you have already mastered, you will never grow.”
Attributed to Ronald Osborn or Ralph Waldo Emerson.
Olin, yeah, I was kind of an anomaly when I took the tests to become securities licensed at age 50. Many of my coworkers from the beer business expressed a desire to try something different, but lacked whatever motivation it took to get outside their comfort zone.
One of the best jobs I had was waitressing. It taught me time management, how to keep changing to the needs and stress of a shift, and how to deal with all sorts of people. I was in the healthcare field and excelled in our clinical rotations over others in my program. Once working in multiple hospitals, I could handle all sorts of personalities and knew the importance of viewing all employees within the hospital as my coworkers. It definitely helps to have variety before one starts their career.
Servers, Nurses, and Doctors have to be some of the most abused occupations that I can think of. We had the misfortune of spending 12 hours in the hallway of Cleveland Metro Health’s emergency room last year. The ill-treatment of the staff by families of patients was nearly off the charts, yet every single doctor and nurse maintained an exemplary attitude. One nurse explained to us that those abusive patients and their families were experiencing the worst day of their lives, and so deserved empathy.
I can see where time spent as a waitress provided lessons for you to use in your career. Thanks for your post, Debbie.
Which, of course, is all very true today as it was during your journey.
Where there is a will there is most often a way. Nobody can sit in one job and expect to get anywhere. They are lucky to keep up with inflation.
Everyone still has opportunities, there is no rigged system keeping people down. Education is important, but it is not the most important factor. The most important determinant for any success is the person you see in the mirror each morning.
I read this and thought for a while about what I learned and where. Mostly I kept returning to things I did with coworkers. I thought about how I learned to operate as a member of a team, being friendly and respectful to all, helping in my own way to build a cohesive unit by the way I interacted with every individual, giving credit to the people who deserved it (especially when their contributions weren’t recognized), and accepting responsibility for my own errors or failings. No man is an island, and my career relied on many, many people.
Martin, what a great attitude! I think that owning your mistakes adds to your value as an employee. I never made excuses for my errors, and people appreciated that. I think it also makes us strive to not make mistakes in the first place.
Thank for this great article. The trick is to utilize every aspect of your life. Nice work, and it appears you like and enjoyed every minute.
It was quite an adventure. I can’t have any regrets because I have ended up in a very good place. I am grateful for that.
The path in Life looks nothing in hindsight like it did at the beginning..
I had a crazy career but it all makes sense in the rear view mirror. Enjoyed your article. You were pretty smart to go to school on those around you, not everyone pays attention to the lessons around them.
Thanks Dan, great article.
For me, the combination of tertiary education and life skills were the key. My engineering degree gave me access and opportunities that I would never have had otherwise. But the life skills learned along the way were necessary to actually generate some success and maintain a healthy balance in life.
In particular, when I first left university I went to work in an engineering role at an underground mine. For the first 6 months I was put on an underground shift crew to assist with maintenance. That 6 months was certainly a crash course in life skills!
Nice story, Dan. Textbooks are an attempt to convert life into information that can be taught and learned in a classroom. But in the end, life is what actually teaches us the most useful information.
I know your brother. Now that I know of his past poor driving, I will avoid sharing the road with him, if at all possible.
LOL, Mike, are you old enough to remember when Berdan Ave would become a one-way west bound street at 3PM every day? Heading home from CCHS, We’d hit Berdan at exactly 3, and Dave would just let ‘er rip. We were lucky that no one ever pulled out from any of the cross streets. Good times🤣
Dan: I’m a few years behind the Smith brothers. But in the late 50s my parents and I lived in the apartment at Rushland & Berdan. Lucky for me that we moved away before Dave got his driver’s license.
I don’t have many useful skills, but if you ever want to know the difference between an adverb and a pronoun, DrLefty is your gal!
Dana, perhaps I could have you edit my posts before I embarrass myself.
When asked which foreign language I took in school, I would often answer, English.
Pig Latin was my go to “foreign language”!
My wife Suzie is half Indian, and when I visit with her family, I can’t even get my conversational Punjabi noun and verb forms the right way round, never mind trying to write them lol
Same, as well as dangling modifiers and objects of prepositions, but I’m pretty sure it’s never gotten me anything 🙂
Dan, after years of recruiting and interviewing, formal education was never my top screening metric. I was always more interested in the informal skills people picked up in the school of life — if those showed up on a CV and were even tangentially relevant to the role, they usually earned an interview.
I never moved further than a bachelors degree myself, but I’ve always believed that beyond critical thinking and clear communication, most practical knowledge is learned on the job anyway.
Mark, the last job I had lasted for 20 years. When they called, the initial telephone and following in-person interview went fine – I had the credentials they wanted and decent experience in their field. For the second interview, I was asked to make a 30 minute technical presentation. The subject matter was unimportant, but the ability to make a coherent technical presentation to a roomful of engineers and technicians was considered a make-or-break skill for this company. Apparently I passed.
Mark,
I earned a bachelor’s degree in physical therapy, and a masters in physical education with a concentration in athletic training. BUT what I learned in both was the basics of the professions which required national exams to practice. At least half of what I knew by the time I retired was from experience. You can only learn so much from books. Living life is the greatest educator.
I think that’s especially true for professionals, such as attorneys and
CPAs.
Like Warren Buffett’s “too hard pile” where he discarded investment opportunities that were overly complex or outside his circle of competence I think the best professionals, either by choice or chance, narrow the areas they become expert in and where they practice.
William, I had one of those piles, though I didn’t know it had a name. My friend Julie was an Enrolled Agent, I sent her dozens of “too hard” clients over the years.